2020 is a year that was not easy for many. But the gaming industry managed to go through several interesting moments: the scandalous releases of The Last of Us Part II and Cyberpunk 2077, the long-awaited return of Half-Life and the unexpected success of small indie projects overshadowed the transfers due to the pandemic. Not all of them are remembered and left their mark, and some games may shoot later – yes, Johnny Silverhand, a nod in your direction. The Cybersport.ru editorial staff offers to look at their top 2023.
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10th Place – Fall Guys, Best Partygame
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An unexpected quiet gift from the Ubisoft conveyor belt. Taking The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild and his Assassin’s Creed Odyssey as a basis, the French giant managed to create an unusual game with his own face – even though the number of borrowings exceeds all reasonable limits.
Entourage – cartoon “Assassin”. Research – pure Zelda. But there are also enough nuances like unique puzzles and a kind of combat. And there is also humor, which both “parents” cannot boast of. And the humor is surprisingly successful, not slipping into idiocy.
Fenyx is arguably the first Ubisoft game in a long time that is really fun to explore. This is largely due to the fact that there are no notorious question marks on the map and you need to find everything yourself: looking at the location from a height, Phoenix pays attention to items for gathering, riddles and other interesting things.
At the same time, Fenyx talks about the dark sides of a person very openly and calmly, which is not expected from a cartoon humorous game. These topics are well covered: they talk about otherness, and about controlling anger, and about narcissism. Interestingly, all these things, which are usually scolded, are presented here in an almost positive light.
Text: Sergey Lampochko Sergienko
Eighth place – Ghost of Tsushima, the best samurai simulator
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As for me, Shadowlands can be safely called the game of the year. Unlike all of your Cyberpunk 2077 and The Last of Us Part II, the new addition for World of Warcraft will be relevant for another two years. For a month in the Dark Lands, I have seen almost no criticism of the game in chats, apart from the cry of those who were killed by imbalanced robbers in PvP, or the displeasure of some melee men who failed mythic due to the weekly effect.
Shadowlands continues to reveal itself in fragments, and if at first such an approach could repel, because five days after the release you did not know where to go, then after the release of the raid, keys and storage with rewarding content became enough to occupy yourself for the whole week. The main storyline is still rather vague, but the stories of the Covenants have come to the fore. And it’s great that the developers are finally telling us about something other than Sylvanas’ sinister plans.
As we progress through the Covenant campaign, we not only become familiar with the lore and laws of the afterlife, but also get to know our home zone better. And here we should pay tribute to Blizzard: firstly, she made four really large and diverse zones, and secondly, the developers made it difficult to move around them – as a loyal subject of the Kyrian, I know what I’m talking about. In addition, almost all rare monsters in the location need to be summoned with the help of certain manipulations, and to open the chest, you will have to go to Wowhead in search of clues. Thanks to this, the zones of the Dark Lands do not become something common the very next day after their stay, but continue to amaze even after a month.
It’s the same with Torgast. At first, as I noted in the review, it was clear that the level of complexity and variety of the tower did not meet the expectations of the players, but this new activity definitely has potential, and it will be something more than island expeditions in BfA. So you can say about everything in Shadowlands – some of the new additions have already hit the taste of the players, others just look like something interesting, but not yet fully revealed. At the same time, the addon evokes a sense of integrity and meaningfulness – you are sure that a twisted plot with the Jailer, a few twists and even more atmospheric raids awaits you. Although the “Castle of Nafriya” turned out to be very worthy, but Anastasia allestron will tell you about it.
I’m one of those players who are calm about the transformations of the lore of World of Warcraft and do not really like to complete quests. In MMORPG, I am most attracted by the party game and the competitive component – in WoW, you can challenge yourself and other players, and not necessarily in PvP. It is also very pleasant to get around a friend or “foe” on Raider.io.
For a month of daily playing Shadowlands, I can recap: WoW gets harder from addon to addon. Now the 16th key seems like a hellish test, which for a while can only be passed by a played and well-equipped group, and it is unlikely that the average casual player will stick his nose in such a key anytime soon.
The raid also proved to be a test of strength. Blizzard has reduced the amount of loot received and expanded the number of mechanics already on the first boss, Screech, which does not allow the “scares” to quickly kill the initial opponents and scatter – many did this before. A lot of unique mechanics appeared in the raid, and some old ones were also returned – for example, there is an interesting fight with an old friend Kael’thas Sunstrider, where a lot depends on healing. The final boss, Sir Denatrius, is not too difficult in terms of mechanics, but requires attentiveness and agility, which makes him hardcore for a group of 20 people – one makes a mistake, and everyone lies face down. In general, Blizzard did its best and created a cool addon that will be remembered with love years later.
Text: Vyacheslav PilotBaker Ipatov and Anastasia allestron Bismuth
Sixth Place – Persona 5 Royal, Best Heart Thief
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Animal Crossing: New Horizons is a wonderful game that stands out from the crowd of other new products in 2023. There is no specific final goal, because the whole thing is in the process: an entire island is given at your disposal and offered to explore it, along the way making new friends. Contrary to popular belief, this is not just Nintendo’s Farm Frenzy, but a simple yet terribly addicting life simulator with tons of virtual socialization options.
The entire gameplay of Animal Crossing: New Horizons fits into the meditative collection of resources, the ennobling of the island and interaction with NPC animals. However, the list of routine worries is diluted with small events, travels to other islands and many small but surprising discoveries. Add to this the real-clock change of time of day that affects the gameplay and the transition of seasons with a ton of new content – and you have the ultimate way to forget about problems every day.
The entire Animal Crossing series is difficult to directly compare with other hits: it touches with a lot of nice little things that lie in every action and an atmosphere with relaxing musical motives, rather than innovations, graphics and unusual gameplay. New Horizons has already sold millions of copies, simply because it came out at the right time when everyone needs a personal little island, albeit a virtual one. In 2023, this game really earned the title of the best, doing everything to make the year even a little more enjoyable.
Text: Daniil Smacked Khvalev
4th Place – Half-Life: Alyx, Best VR Experience
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The Last of Us Part II has become one of the most talked about games in recent years. It was rated on Metacritic alone by 150,000 users – more than Minecraft, Grand Theft Auto V (for all platforms), and The Witcher 3 combined. In any other situation, such a characteristic could probably be considered positive, however, the crazy popularity of TLoU2 in all forums and resources is due only to the wave of hatred that the game caused. It even came to massive death threats that began to come to the actress who played the role of Abby – nothing like this has happened in the gaming industry before.
The reason for the criticism of the game was the ambiguous script decisions, controversial characters, deliberately false advertising … and many other sins, in which gamers accused Naughty Dog – once one of the most beloved game studios in the community. How fair such a reaction was, each of us must decide for himself – preferably by independently completing the passage. Whatever your verdict, one fact cannot be denied: The Last of Us Part II was one of the games that defined the PlayStation 4 generation.
For all its controversy (and perhaps because of it), TLoU2 is one of the clearest illustrations of what our industry has achieved in this generation. This is a truly “cinematic” experience, with excellent directing and outstanding acting. This is the technical achievement of Naughty Dog, who managed to create such a beautiful game on hardware, released in 2013. This is a new quality bar for developers looking to make games accessible to people with disabilities – the depth of customization in TLoU2 will surprise anyone. It’s also a game that can be shown to a person unfamiliar with the industry, and almost certainly converted to a gaming faith. Perhaps, even apart from the plot, this is enough to make TLoU2 a place in our top.
Text: Vladislav Machinae Zhivotnev
Second Place – Hades, Best Roguelike
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До релиза седьмой части, в которой впервые отсутствует Казума Кирю как главный герой, но нашлось место совершенно новой боевой системе, игра у многих вызывала опасения. Как оказалось, напрасно: былой шарм никуда не пропал, а нововведения здорово разнообразили устоявшуюся формулу.
Здесь много привычных элементов: сюжет опирается (но не дословно копирует!) на самую первую часть, десятки побочных миссий различной безумности не дадут заскучать, а небольшой район Иджинчо полон развлечений на любой вкус — от караоке и баров до импровизированных гонок за пивными банками и настоящего картинга.
Да и боевая система, родившаяся из первоапрельской шутки, удачно играет свою роль как сюжетно, так и механически. Да еще и умудряется попутно шутить над самим жанром японских RPG, делая это с большой любовью.
Пару слов хочется сказать и об ансамбле персонажей с Ичибаном Касугой во главе. Несмотря на общее сходство происхождения, моральных принципов и судьбы Ичи с Кирю, у них хватает и отличий. В первую очередь это касается характера героев: Ичи — неунывающий оптимист, готовый на все ради друзей и не теряющий присутствия духа даже в самых безвыходных ситуациях. А собирающиеся вокруг него люди отличаются интересными проработанными характерами, раскрывающимися через персональные побочные задания. Раз уж у нас партийная ролевая игра, то у каждого напарника должен быть свой персональный мини-сюжет. Разве что роман с ними закрутить нельзя — для этого в городе есть другие девушки.
